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I Pioneered Scientific Magic - Chapter 503
🕑 Added 2024-04-12 23:37:08 +0000 UTCChapter 503: The Debate between Waves and Particles, A Quarrel Spreading Across the Kingdom!
The sudden news brought by Kagar was undoubtedly shocking!
The Thunder Wizards, who had been basking in joy, immediately changed their expressions.
"How is that possible? How could he have discovered it so quickly?" Sanchez's face was full of disbelief.
Here, hundreds of Thunder Wizards had spent months analyzing Maxwell's equations and had crafted a ten-kilometer-long conductor to accurately measure the speed of electricity in a conductor as equal to the speed of light, thereby deriving the connection between light and electricity.
And yet, Geoffrey, with only a dozen wizards and apprentices from various schools, had discovered the photoelectric effect before them?
Anthony quickly snatched the Magic Daily from Kagar's hands and started reading. He froze as he saw the headline.
"Light Elements Are Mere Ignorance, On the Interference and Diffraction of Light — Light Exhibits Wave Properties!"
The magic thesis that filled the page argued a single point: light was not the element they had previously thought, but a wave that travels through some medium, just like water waves and sound waves!
"Nonsense, how can light be a wave!" Anthony could barely continue reading and burst out cursing.
Sanchez also took a look and was equally infuriated. "Light elements are mere ignorance? How dare he say that?"
Just a minute ago, they were celebrating the discovery of the photoelectric effect, believing that photons were just tinier electrons, and they were one step away from discovering the true light element!
Now, Geoffrey suddenly claims that light elements don't exist at all, that it's all a lie, that light is actually a continuous wave rather than particles—how could they accept this?
It was like being slapped in the face in public!
"He must be mad with desire for the Corona Medal!" another master wizard skilled in Thunder Magic scoffed.
How could light possibly be a wave? They had been able to emit light in beams, and previous experiments had already proved that light travels in straight lines. Its reflection phenomenon was also the best proof of the existence of light particles.
Most importantly, according to his theory of photoelectric conversion, light was actually even smaller particles of electricity!
And the existence of positive and negative charges had long been discovered and confirmed, further proving that the light element theory was irrefutable!
"Don't panic, everyone, Geoffrey is just seeking attention. Wait till we publish our theory of photoelectric conversion tomorrow, and this wave theory will become a complete joke!" Anthony quickly calmed down and said.
Sanchez nodded, "He's just a clown doomed to be exposed, indeed not worth our time."
The group of Thunder Wizards no longer paid any attention to the nonsense in the newspaper, each returning to organize their notes, ready to publish part of their research in the next few days and crush Geoffrey!
Meanwhile, the wave theory also spread throughout the Magic Kingdom with the publication of the "Magic Daily."
Although in recent years, the kingdom had seen the rise of over a dozen new newspapers, and the "Magic Daily" no longer held its former monopolistic position, it remained the mouthpiece of the council, recognized by the official authorities, and its influence was still not to be underestimated.
Almost every wizard keen on magic studies regularly bought a copy of the "Magic Daily," which often recorded some novel and interesting magic theses, including some of the cutting-edge achievements in magical theory.
Geoffrey's wave theory, once published, attracted the attention of many wizards.
Because the theory was very well-developed, Geoffrey explained in a straightforward manner how light travels as waves and used this to explain phenomena like light interference and diffraction.
What was more convincing was that the paper directly provided detailed experimental proof methods, requiring only a barrier with two holes poked in it and a light-emitting device, which was very simple.
Even wizards who were not skilled in Thunder or Light Magic could perform a few experiments with convex and concave lenses, using concentrated sunlight to complete this experiment.
For such an experiment that could be easily done by hand, naturally, numerous wizards actually conducted it themselves.
As the Star of Magic said, practice is the only criterion for testing truth!
Theories spoken by others were not as reliable as those verified by personal experiment.
And it was precisely this simple experiment that made Geoffrey's wave theory widely acclaimed!
Because it was so similar, the interference pattern that emerged after light passed through the two slits was indeed identical to the wave crests and troughs produced by water waves!
Could light truly be a wave?
This question began to appear in the minds of more and more wizards. Their previous understanding of light had come entirely from various conjectures, and even the legendary Speaker could not sense its existence until Lynn, the Star of Magic, conducted a light speed measurement experiment, uncovering a corner of the mysterious veil.
Just as the kingdom's wizards were gradually accepting this theory, on the evening of the third day, Anthony and others jointly published their photoelectric effect
and light particle theory, dropping jaws everywhere!
Light turned out to be electricity, and electricity turned out to be light?
In these Thunder Wizards' explanations, light was a stream of high-speed, extremely tiny particles, and electrons were composed of these light particles, so their propagation speed showed high consistency.
The reason electricity emits light is because the moment lightning is stimulated, like a radioactive element, it begins to radiate its 'energy' in the form of light.
This was in stark contrast to Geoffrey's wave theory, but Anthony and others also provided strong evidence—they successfully created a photoelectric conversion device!
The material used was silicon!
As long as a sufficiently strong light illuminated a silicon panel, it could continuously generate an electric current.
This theory perfectly explained the working principle of laser magic.
If light is indeed tiny pieces of electricity, then when a large amount of light is injected into an outer electron, its energy significantly increases, causing it to jump to a higher orbit, and then it emits the excess energy in the form of light!
The group of Thunder Wizards even coined a new name for the light element, calling it a photoelectron!
They even boldly stated in the "Magic Daily" that internal combustion engines and generators were outdated technology. Why bother with such trouble? In the future, just place a giant silicon panel over every city, directly using the nearly infinite sunlight from above to generate electricity—wouldn't that be perfect?
After a detailed explanation of the photoelectric effect, Anthony personally took the time to write a considerable length to refute Geoffrey's wave theory.
What is a wave? It is the process of propagation of vibration in a certain medium, such as throwing a stone into water, directly displacing the water surface, followed by the water molecules in front pushing the molecules behind, and the force being transmitted out.
This means that wave propagation must have a medium, whether it's sound waves or water waves, but light is different—it can propagate through the absolute emptiness of space.
So the light wave theory is complete nonsense!
"What nonsense photoelectron!" Geoffrey's face turned dark the moment he got the new issue of the "Magic Daily."
His wave theory had just been published for two days when Anthony and others came up with some photoelectron theory to sabotage it, in his view, entirely out of jealousy, a malicious academic suppression!
After all, he alone, leading a dozen apprentices, had completed the research on the nature of light, attracting envy was only natural!
But out of caution, Geoffrey still had his apprentices conduct the photoelectric experiments recorded in the "Magic Daily."
After more than an hour of toil, a few apprentices carefully reported back.
"Teacher, we've tried it, and it seems like light can indeed generate electricity... whether it's multicolored light or monochromatic light, as long as the intensity is sufficient, it can produce an electric current."
Geoffrey was momentarily stunned, frowning deeply.
Could light really be electricity?
Since the star system's elemental model proposed by the Star of Magic, the existence of electrons had been confirmed—they orbit the nucleus like planets around a star.
If light is electricity, then it should be a particle, not a wave...
Geoffrey's mind wavered briefly, but he soon reaffirmed his belief.
The wave theory was absolutely an indisputable truth, after all, the experimental results were right there!
Regardless of whether one was a wizard or proficient in electrics and optics, anyone could set up an experimental platform to perfectly replicate this experiment!
As for the so-called photoelectric effect, Geoffrey thought it might just be the normal energy conversion phenomenon between light and electricity—
It's like saying a burning piece of wood is fire.
With this thought, Geoffrey had a wizard from the school bring several great wizards from the City of Fire Oil, who were close to him, over.
Now that his wave theory was being maliciously suppressed by envious people, relying solely on himself was likely insufficient to maintain the authority of the wave theory; he needed more people to stand up for him.
About three days later, Geoffrey and several great wizards published new research results on the wave theory, along with corresponding patches.
With their current capabilities, the vacuum domain they created was not completely empty; there might also be some fine elements they had not yet discovered, or perhaps space itself was the medium for light!
For example, the disturbances produced by force field magic, which uses space as a medium!
Moreover, in response, Geoffrey also wrote a full page to refute Anthony's particle theory—if light were finer electrons, then a large amount of gathered light would certainly generate a magnetic field!
The result, tested on the vacuum experimental field they set up, showed that the gathered light beams did not produce the expected magnetic field phenomenon.
This statement, once issued, directly dealt a heavy blow to the photoelectric effect proposed by Anthony...
After all, electricity generating magnetism, and magnetism generating electricity, is the fundamental logic known to every Thunder Wizard!
Public opinion in the kingdom reversed again, and more and more
people began to believe in Geoffrey's wave theory again, because the experimental results were right there, undeniable.
"What do we do now, teacher..." After reading the latest issue of the "Magic Daily," Flora was somewhat panicked, especially after urgently conducting some experiments and confirming that the gathered light beams could not produce a surrounding magnetic field.
Anthony paced back and forth in the lab, pondering where his photoelectric effect had gone wrong, why the light beam could not produce a surrounding magnetic field.
"Could it be that the energy of individual light particles isn't enough, so they can't produce a magnetic field?" Sanchez pondered aloud. "It's also possible that the produced magnetic field is too weak for us to detect."
"That's possible!" Anthony nodded, concluding that more experiments were needed to prove this point.
Under Geoffrey's criticism, everyone was full of drive, striving to find any evidence in favor of the particle theory!
After days of painstaking research, Anthony did not find the magnetic field effect of the light beam, but he released another powerful weapon: they developed a particle theory that explained the light diffraction phenomenon!
According to their conjecture, electricity is composed of a large number of photoelectrons, and the moment electricity is stimulated, it explodes like a bomb, ejecting all the light particles inside in all directions.
Just that the quantity of these dispersed light particles was too large and too dense, thus producing a phenomenon similar to waves.
Moreover, these energy-rich groups of light particles might even undergo a second 'explosion' and spread out further, such as encountering an impassable gap...
Only until it becomes individual particles does this pseudo 'wave' nature disappear.
As for the distance... the Thunder Wizards believed from the moment electricity began to disperse, to thinning out into individual light particles, the distance might be one hundred million kilometers, or possibly over a billion kilometers. After all, light moves so fast, it would still take a few minutes to calm down, wouldn't it?
Seeing the newspaper, Geoffrey was nearly driven mad by anger.
A hundred million kilometers? That would require orbiting the Eternal Star two thousand five hundred times! Where would he find such a large experimental space?
The other party was clearly trying to prevent him from refuting the particle theory with experiments. Even if he managed to resolve the issue of distance, Anthony and others could still claim their data wasn't precise enough.
Geoffrey's anger surged continuously. He neither slept nor conducted experiments anymore, but got up from bed, spending the entire night writing tens of thousands of words, furiously denouncing the theory as completely unfounded fantasy!
The quarrel between the two sides continued for over a month, not only not stopping but escalating. From initially replying every three to seven days with rigorous experiments to refute the other's theory, it turned into simply rebutting and insulting each other.
As the editor of the "Magic Daily," Rol was so happy he was nearly laughing madly. Various tabloids started taking sides and spouting without any limits, and the sales of newspapers soared every day...
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